The reviews are in… (“A Day of Writing with Authors,” Part II) November 21, 2016 – Posted in: Activity, Books, Edwin Fontanez, Events, News
As a long-time artist, author, and presenter of children’s workshops, I can tell you with utmost certainty that for as much detail as I invest in planning an activity, there can be a scary, unexpected element that may flip a fun presentation into something disastrous. It is precisely that unknown that—despite my long experience—keeps me up at night when I have to address a group of children. Thankfully, my anticipated terror usually melts away into a memorable experience. The results are often a surprise when I receive the unfiltered, honest feedback from my audience. Please enjoy a sample of the fruit of my sleepless nights!
This transcript is a short compilation of comments taken verbatim from my students evaluations, including typos. Names are not provided since the evaluation process was anonymous.
“Excellent … Mr. Fontánez was very kind and created an easy-going atmosphere.”
“Excellent … He was funny and helpful and I learned a lot today.”
“I love writing about things that make no sense! … I met 2 amazing authors with amazing personalities!”
“I also learned that a myth is definately fictional … Finally I learned that from some picture, all you need is creativity to make something happen.”
“Super awesome… I enjoyed the way that we learned how to make myths… I learned that writing a myth is easier than it looks.”
“Very creative, and intreging… How to create better, more detailed myths.”
“Excellent… You keep the class fun and cheerful while we do our exercise … Everything was amazing.”
“Excellent… Nice tutor, good advice no force on sharing, triggered imagination.”
“Excellent… Very good because we got to meet authors and they helped us write.”
“Excellent… Very friendly teacher! Fun to talk about Greek/Roman mythology.”
“Excellent… I love how we wrote our own myths and how we talked about books we like … Maybe at the end of both classes you can have all the authors read a part of the first book they wrote.”
In answer to the question of how to improve the sessions, this is what some of the students replied…
“No suggestions it was great”
“Nothing should change!”
“Nothing. I do not think you should change anything because it was so much fun.”
“To be honest I like this place just the way it is …. Nope. It’s perfect!”
“Nothing, it was awesome.”
“Everything was amazing.”
And of course, some answers to the same (misunderstood) question!
“Longer lunch”
“Give better directions to where we meet.”